Episode 4745a (2nd January 2000)
Plot Curly is stunned to see Raquel. She struggles to keep calm and shows him a photograph of a little girl, explaining that he has a daughter, Alice. He can't believe it and rows with her for not telling him before. She explains that she didn't want him to try and force her back to live with him. He tells her this is the worse thing she's ever done to him. She tells him she often tells Alice about him and they look at her star. He hopes she wants to be reconciled and is gutted when she tells him she's going to marry Armand de Beaux, a forty-eight year old French gent who she works for as a nanny. She explains she loves him and wants a divorce as she is pregnant. Curly agrees to give her a divorce. He is touched when she urges him to visit Alice as much as he wants and that Armand will never adopt her. She urges him to stop clinging to the past and just enjoy being her friend. He agrees. They wish each other a Happy New Year and she leaves. Cast Regular cast *Raquel Watts - Sarah Lancashire *Curly Watts - Kevin Kennedy Guest cast None Places *Coronation Street exterior *7 Coronation Street - Downstairs rooms, landing, front bedroom, attic and yard Notes *Final appearance of Sarah Lancashire as Raquel Watts. *This was a special forty-five minute episode and the programme's first two-hander. It was the idea of writer John Stevenson who had originally created the character of Raquel. When the team of writers were asked for story ideas, Stevenson contributed this one, feeling that Raquel's story had previously ended with, "unfinished business". Set outside the mainstream stories at the time, it was the first episode since 1961 not to have input from the storylining team and therefore not carry a credit for any of those individuals. This was in part due to the perceived need to keep the return secret, although inevitably the press learned of the episode. Only five copies of the script were produced and the episode was filmed with the smallest crew possible in the main Granada Television studios after outside rehearsal and not in the usual Coronation Street Stage One and Two studios. *This was a unique episode of the programme in that it was made outside the usual production run of the episodes, having an individual production code and therefore not contributing to the normal episode numbering system. The number used here (4745a) is purely for cataloguing purposes on this site. The episode's correct number is 1/3333/0001. *Uniquely, this is the only episode of the programme not to have a separate repeat on ITV2 since it began broadcasting on 7th December 1998 although it did form part of the omnibus edition shown at 6.00pm on Sunday 9th January 2000. *''TV Times'' synopsis: The Millennium brings Raquel back to Curly's door *Viewing Figures: UK broadcast - 18,170,000 viewers (6th place - combined figure including repeat). *This episode was included in the Golden Anniversary DVD Collection, released by ITV Home Entertainment on 11th October 2010. Category:Extended episodes Category:2000 episodes Category:Episodes released on DVD